Tekken Producer’s Fan Beef

Tekken’s producer Katsuhiro Harada has voiced his opinion on the “whining and complaining” fans who “blindly repeat” their requests for original voice actors in Tekken Tag Tournament 2.

He shared his disdain for the moaners via a (much longer than average) Tweet in which he said he was planning to stop engaging with negative comments and repetitive requests to bring back the Tekken voice actors of old.

"I believe that, before whining and complaining about everything, you need practice at taking a step back and analyzing things objectively," he said, bluntly. "And also at being an adult."

Harada went on to explain that it’s both technically difficult, time-consuming, a logistical nightmare, oft impossible and sometimes illogical to try to replicate sounds from 16 years ago:

"The current generation of consoles are totally different in how they play back sound; both software-wise, and the internal circuitry," he said.

"The playback program is different, as well as the sound effects added; reverb and 5.1 are examples of this. The compression rate, as well as the sound rate, is different today. Are you playing games on the same TV you used 16 years ago? What about your speakers? Headphones? They are all the same as 16 years ago? I wonder if it will sound like the same voice as 16 years ago, even with that data."

He went on to say "Also, you are assuming the voice actors themselves can reproduce the voice the recorded 16 years ago? Many voice actors decline work because their voice has changed since the original role, some have even retired. Sometimes they won't accept, even if we ask.

"The recording studio and the equipment they use is also different. With all of this in mind, you still thing it is possible to recreate these voices?"

Apparently, some voice actors won’t let Namco Bandai reuse their recordings, even for a fee (in this economic climate?).

"For example, Brian's laugh is the actual data from Tekken 3. As fans have requested, we've kept using the original, adapting the data recorded 16 years ago to be used on the PS2, and then PS3.

"Even so, some people said it is a different voice in Tekken 6 than the original. It can't be helped they might think that. As explained above, even though the master data is the same, all of the equipment used in adapting it has completely changed.

"That said, it isn't a good idea to try to recreate the older recording environment because then the data sounds heavily compressed, with noise. More than that, it would sound out of place next to the voice data of the newer characters.

I can't continue to engage the negative ones that, without knowing what you are talking about, or even thinking about what you are saying, blindly repeat 'bring back, bring back, bring back...'

"WHAT? You say some of the voices sound like they haven't changed at all? I guess you didn't notice that the development team has re-recorded them, but made efforts for it to sound as close as possible to the original. And you probably didn't even notice."

Harada continued: "Do you know that all of the voice work for a character is not always done by just one voice actor? Using Brian as an example, the laugh you guys love so much uses the original data from Tekken 3, but the short kiai voice uses a different voice actor, and the "come on!" voice also uses a different voice actor. A lot of other characters also use different voice actors for the spoken lines and for the shouts."

Harada himself actually voiced Marshal and Forest Law for 15 years (up to and including Tekken 5), though now he can’t replicate the same sounds as, believe it or not, he’s grown older over the period. This has forced him to get someone else to carry on.

"The Tekken series has continued for 17 years. The development environment, as well as the environment in which you all play games, has changed.

"There are so many characters, and we can't keep using the same voice actors every time, for a variety of reasons."

Harada’s opinion is that fans claiming they’re willing to buy a game twice in order to support the devs on the condition they do their bidding are probably all mouth and no action.

"You often say, 'let's show the dev team how sincere we are by buying two copies if they bring back character X,' but did you really go through with it? Expecting you to at least pre-order the game, I was met with more spam, after you apparently didn't notice that Jun and Michelle actually return."

A despondent Harada concluded: "I still have some characters left to be revealed that comply with some of your requests, even 'bringing back' several others. Even so, none of them are paid DLC. I will continue to sincerely comply with fan requests.

"However, I can't continue to engage the negative ones that, without knowing what you are talking about, or even thinking about what you are saying, blindly repeat 'bring back, bring back, bring back...'

"After this lengthy explanation, I will be quite surprised if there are still people who still don't get it.